Communist guerrillas killed 18 soldiers in an ambush in the southern Philippines island of Mindanao, a military official said Sunday.
A truck rushing a platoon of Army Special Forces to the front hit a landmine and was ambushed by New People's Army (NPA) guerrillas near the town of Cateel in the Compostela Valley region before dawn on Saturday, said local army commander Colonel Felipe Berroya.
The ambush and the three-hour firefight that followed left 18 soldiers dead, said Army spokesman Colonel Jose Mabanta in Manila.
Six other soldiers including a lieutenant were wounded while one is missing, and government troops also lost 21 firearms, he added.
Government troops believe they killed 25 NPA rebels over three days, including 10 during the ambush, the officials said.
However the military said no bodies have been recovered.
Berroya said he believed the NPA carried their dead away as they retreated.
Four Army battalions, or about 2,000 troops, are now involved in the fighting, Berroya added.
The soldiers are pursuing an NPA unit, which set fire to a telecommunications relay station on November 12.
The government has warned that the NPA, the 11,600-member armed wing of the underground Communist Party of the Philippines, is on the rebound as the military has been preoccupied with Muslim separatism elsewhere on Mindanao.
Peace talks between the communists and the government were suspended after the rebels assassinated two legislators earlier this year.
The communist rebellion was launched in 1969. Military successes and factionalism reduced its armed strength to about 6,000 guerrillas in the early 1990s -- Philippines (AFP)
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